The Girl Hunters (1963) Spillane is Mike Hammer, and he shows it in this flick. His final line is thrilling. He doesn't have a great voice, and not even a great delivery but he looks the part like nobody else. 8\10

Julie and Julia - 6/10 - Pleasant but overlong: why does a movie about two women learning how to cook need to be as long as a movie about Genghis Khan? The Julia Child parts are very good, with Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci both giving fine performances; the stuff with Amy Adams gets pretty tiresome, particularly when she starts fighting with her annoying husband. There's barely enough here for one movie, let alone two, but they ought to have focused on the Julia part; who cares about a blogger?

Julie and Julia - 6/10 - Pleasant but overlong: why does a movie about two women learning how to cook need to be as long as a movie about Genghis Khan?

Zing!

The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) 10/10. "Highlights" from the 10-year career of Germany's first-generation Red Army Faction, immaculately and convincingly staged, without recourse to CGI. This is another excellent documentary-style crime drama that can take its place beside Zodiac and Gomorrah. What makes this one different, of course, is the fact that the RAF were political--that is, they committed their--sometimes appallingly brutal--crimes with the very best of intentions. The filmmakers do what they can to show their subjects in a good light, but there's no getting around the fact that Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof and the rest were terrible, terrible people. The world is better off without them, and this comes through without any editorializing on the part of the filmmakers. We are allowed to draw our own conclusions from the facts presented. I applaud this trend in True Crime films.

Ya measly skunk! A-campin’ on my trail and lettin’ me do the work an’ then shootin’ me in the back. IN THE BACK!

Judgment at Nuremberg - 6-7/10 - Another Lesson in Liberalism from Stanley Kramer! It has potentially fascinating material, and a troop of fine actors giving powerhouse performances (particularly Maximillian Schell and Montgomery Clift), but it's also painfully long (190 minutes!), very stiff and excrutiatingly pedantic. Every line is a speech about morality and justice: no wit, no humor, very little actual human interaction. The few scenes we do have outside the courtroom add little to the film: the Marlene Dietrich subplot and the stuff about the Berlin Airlift just emphasize what we've been hearing in court. And of course we have Spencer Tracy, ever the symbol of Liberal Rectitude, lecturing us about the righteousness of, erm, righteousness. Its primary virtue is that it's more well-rounded than the simplistic moralizing of Inherit the Wind, which does count for something. In sum, we get a three-hour lecture on ethics and morality.

The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) 10/10. "Highlights" from the 10-year career of Germany's first-generation Red Army Faction, immaculately and convincingly staged, without recourse to CGI. This is another excellent documentary-style crime drama that can take its place beside Zodiac and Gomorrah. What makes this one different, of course, is the fact that the RAF were political--that is, they committed their--sometimes appallingly brutal--crimes with the very best of intentions. The filmmakers do what they can to show their subjects in a good light, but there's no getting around the fact that Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof and the rest were terrible, terrible people. The world is better off without them, and this comes through without any editorializing on the part of the filmmakers. We are allowed to draw our own conclusions from the facts presented. I applaud this trend in True Crime films.

This is available for instant watch on Netflix. Thanks for the recommendation Jenkins.

Chungking Express - 5/10 - The first half = good off-beat comedy with an amusing noirish tinge. I'm not sure what anything had to do with anything, but it was well-written and acted (and funny) enough that I didn't mind just enjoying the ride. The second half = trite, twee and wholly predictable romcom. Several people in class made an Amelie comparison and that doesn't seem out of place, as both have stupid female characters doing wacky things for no good reason. At least Amelie was interestingly shot, and Audrey Tautou is way more likeable than whoever the girl is here. And that one didn't beat any jokes into the ground like this one did with the pineapple cans and California Dreamin'. By the time whatsherface started breaking into the cop's apartment I tuned out.

Judging WKW movies by their plot is missing the point entirely. What's stupid about Faye Wong's character? How is the second half predictable? How can you knock the visuals, which would also be an indirect shot at its editing?

Outside of Cassavetes, when have people been more accurately portrayed? People are wacky, they do wacky things. I just don't understand how you can think the movie is some contrived, cutesy "indie" movie. I know it's not for everybody...but Amelie comparisons?

Claudia, we need you to appear in LOST COMMAND. It's gonna revolutionize the war genre..

Nightwatching (2007) - 8/10"An extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting THE NIGHT WATCH." Dir. Peter Greenaway

Up to the Jacob Burns yesterday to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival:

Saviors in the Night/ Unter Bauren (2009) - 9/10. A Jewish family seeks and receives protection from farmers in Westphalia at the end of the Nazi period. Based on a true story, with wonderful recreations of farm life and the tensions that come with the daily fear of discovery. My only complaint is the soft cinematography, which makes the picture look like it was shot in the 70s. A very moving film about people who (for a change) did the right thing. It features the uber hot Veronica Ferres.

Protektor (2009) 6/10. A Czech movie about a radio broadcaster who sells his soul to the Nazis in order to protect his Jewish wife. Naturally it ends in tears. A very arty film, with interesting use of color, editing, sound design. But all that art can't disguise the fact that the film's story is rather trite. They also throw in a bit a gratuitous sex, drug use, even some illicit film viewing. Also lots of shots of bicycles. Whatever.

Ya measly skunk! A-campin’ on my trail and lettin’ me do the work an’ then shootin’ me in the back. IN THE BACK!